Headscarf Day in Honor of Murdered Fremont Woman

FREMONT, Calif. (KCBS)  -- Many Fremont women are planning to wear the Muslim headscarf, or hijab to work next month to show their sense of solidarity with a local Muslim woman gunned down last week.

Alia Ansari, 37, was shot and killed in broad daylight last Thursday afternoon. She was walking with her 3-year-old daughter to pick up her other children from school. Her family has asked police to investigate the murder as a hate crime. They believe her traditional headscarf, or hijab, made the Afghanistan native a target.

Women leaders in the community decided to organize an event to show their support. November 13th has been declared “Wear a Hijab to Work Day.”

"I'm not going to say that this is a hate crime until the police come back and tell us what it is, but one of the things that we can do as a community is to make sure that different women and diverse cultures are comfortable in any clothing that they chose to wear and that is what this day is for," said Fremont City Councilwoman Anu Natarajan.

KCBS’ Matt Bigler reports that police are still determining if the shooting was a hate crime. The "person of interest" arrested in the case has not yet been charged. He is being held on a parole violation.

Meanwhile, investigators are trying to determine if graffiti near the crime scene is related to the murder. At least five places have been tagged, and four include the acronyms for Afghan gangs.

Greg Roth, the pastor at Centerville Presbyterian Church on Central Avenue, discovered Ansari’s name and the letters “R.I.P.” spray painted on the church when he arrived for Sunday services.

“Usually we would paint graffiti out immediately to try to discourage people from doing that, but we were going to leave it for at least a week and show our compassion for the community and our outrage at this event,” Roth told KCBS reporter Dave Padilla.

(RdD)